Christianity and democracy in Les Misérables

Victor Hugo's epic novel Les Misérables,
set in post-Napoleonic France,
explores a broad range of political, philosophical and religious issues.
Two of the novel's major philosophical themes are Christianity,
personified by Valjean, and democracy, personified by Marius.
In my opinion, Les Misérables
represents Hugo's attempt to reconcile
the two; he fails.

The entire first volume is devoted to the development of Valjean's
character, and Christianity is the driving theme. First we meet the
Bishop of Digne, known to the people of his town as a "just man", and
Hugo reinforces this. The Bishop gives up his episcopal palace
because it's needed by the hospital. The largest item in his budget
is "for the poor". A sudden windfall goes to the soup kitchen and
orphans. He spends all day with a condemned murderer before his
death.

Yet all this is preparatory to the entrance of Valjean, an unredeemed
convict and outcast taken in by the priest after being turned away
from every inn. "This is not my house," he tells the stunned man, "it
is the house of Jesus Christ." Valjean betrays the Bishop's trust,
steals his valuable silverware and sneaks out the back door. Captured
by the police, he is returned to the priest, who not only covers up
for him by claiming that he gave him the silverware, but insists that
he take the silver candlesticks as well, exemplifying Jesus'
commandment that if a man should take your coat, give him your cloak
as well. The Bishop then imposes a benediction on Valjean:

"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good.
It is your soul that I buy from you;
I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of
perdition, and I give it to God."

The Bishop's generosity triggers a profound spiritual crisis in
Valjean, and he converts to Christianity. His is not an outward
conversion of baptism or communion, but an deeper, inward conversion.
Though he never sees the priest again, his life changes
dramatically. Under an assumed name, he establishes himself in a
small town, makes a clever invention which pulls the local industry
out of recession, and in a few years is able to erect his own factory.
With its proceeds, he improves the local hospital, builds two new
schoolhouses, and funds a dispensary for the poor. In time, the King
prevails upon him to become mayor. The bishop dies; Valjean wears
black to mourn for him, symbolically taking the torch of Christianity,
which he is to carry for the rest of the novel.

His willingness to restrain the police earns him the enmity of the
town constable, Javert, destined to become his lifelong nemesis.
Valjean once declared that there are no bad plants or bad men, only
bad cultivators. Javert states that "these men are irremediably
lost". Javert, who knew Valjean in prison, suspects his true
identity, and becomes more and more withdrawn from the mayor. The
last straw comes when Valjean sides with a prostitute Javert is
determined to imprison, invokes his powers as mayor, and frees her.
He learns that she turned to prostitution to support her daughter.
The woman dies, and Valjean promises on her deathbed to support her
daughter, Cosette. Yet Valjean's cover is soon blown, by his own
refusal to let an innocent man, mistaken for him, go to the galleys
for life, and he flees with Cosette. As the child grows into a young
woman, Valjean lives in Paris, frequently changing identities to avoid
the determined Javert.

Enter the last of the novel's major characters - Marius, destined to
fall in love with and marry Cosette. Like Valjean, he inherits a
symbolic torch - the torch of revolution. His father was made a Baron
by Napoleon on the battlefield of Waterloo, and passed the title to
his son on his death. Marius has a hundred cards printed bearing the
name "Le Baron Marius Pontmercy", and fancies the restoration of the
Napoleonic empire.

"Le Baron" is soon disowned by his maternal grandfather, and cast off
into a life of poverty. He meets the Friends of the ABC, a
revolutionary society of students, philosophers and poets led by the
fiery Enjolras. While the Bishop of Digne converted Valjean through
simple acts of generosity and mercy, Marius' new friends resort to
wit, philosophy, and a barrage of words to convince him to abandon
Napoleon's empire and adopt a new cause - republic and democracy - but
the means remain the same: the sword, the cannon, the barricade.

Hugo goes to great length to present us Marius in the most sympathetic
light. He gives his poor neighbor twenty-five francs for rent when he
himself has only thirty. Yet he also appoints himself judge over his
neighbors, declares "these wretches must be stamped upon," when he
realizes that a robbery is about to take place next door, and sends
for the police.
He regrets this judgment when he realizes that the ruffian about
to commit the crime saved his father's life at Waterloo,
and begins fumbling for another way out,
but ultimately it is Javert who bursts into the room and disrupts
the crime.
Hugo conveniently arranges for this act to save
Valjean, but did the Bishop of Digne "stamp upon" Valjean after his
crime? Wouldn't it have been a simple rationalization for the Bishop
to think he had to stop others from being victimized by Valjean?
Let's not forget Valjean's original crime of stealing bread to feed
his younger brothers, which lead him to the galleys and a life of
crime. Marius has good intentions, but never
adopts the Bishop's willingness to turn away from a wrong, determined
instead to fight his oppressors.

As revolutionary fervor again sweeps France, Enjolras rallies
his secret society.
Thirty years had passed since "Library, Fraternity,
Equality" became the swish of the guillotine, the roar of
cannon, the tramp of legions,
and still they want more.
The revolution comes, and
Enjolras springs his plan into action,
turning their favorite wine-shop
into a fortress and erecting a barricade across the street.
Valjean passes through the army lines wearing his National Guard
uniform, enters the barricade, then gives up his uniform so
a man with a family to support can slip away and be saved.

The government is determined to crush the uprising, and
soldiers surround the barricade and storm it.
Marius becomes the hero of the rebellion after winning the battle by
threatening to blow up the barricade, himself, the soldiers, and all
his friends. Now, if he could have blown up only the soldiers, would
he have hesitated for a second? Moments earlier, Valjean was faking
the death of his arch-nemesis Javert to free him on a side street.
Would Marius fake the death of the soldiers? If the soldiers had not
retreated, would Marius have carried out his threat of martyrdom?
Probably. "Victory or death!" has been the rallying cry of radical
patriots since day one.

Valjean, though present at the barricade, fires not a single shot.
After freeing Javert, he turns his attention to Marius, determined to
win his revolution or die fighting the soldiers. The government
attacks again in force; the barricade falls. Marius, badly wounded
with a broken collar bone and multiple head injuries, faints into the
arms of Valjean, who lifts a sewer grate and drops in carrying the
half-dead revolutionary. As he escapes through the sewer with the
unconscious Marius, the wine-shop is taken, Enjolras is executed by firing
squad, the ABC Society goes down fighting and Revolution of 1832 falls
to pieces.

Marius recovers from his wounds to find much of his world collapsed
around him. All his close friends are dead; what is left is his
love for Cosette. They marry.
Valjean
confesses to Marius that he is a fugitive convict.
Marius, not yet
knowing that it was Valjean who saved him at the barricade,
believing that Valjean shot Javert, and
wondering
if his six hundred thousand franc inheritance was stolen,
gives Valjean the cold shoulder and gradually pushes him out of
Cosette's life. Valjean, believing that the girl has a husband and no
longer needs a father, acquiesces.

Marius ultimately learns the truth - that the inheritance is legitimate,
that it was Valjean who saved him at the barricade, that Javert's
murder was faked - and regrets having estranged Valjean.
With Cosette in hand, he rushes to redeem himself with Valjean,
only to find him on his deathbed.
So Valjean dies, in the presence of his adopted daughter and
son-in-law. Perhaps this is meant as another symbolic torch
passing, but who will carry it on, and in what form? Will Marius
"love his enemies"? Will his wife resist corruption by his hot-headed
rebellion? Has the Bishop of Digne's torch passed or finally died?

The failed 1832 uprising featured in Les Misérables
was but one in a series of violent clashes
spawned by the French Revolution. After declaring a constitutional
monarchy in 1789, the French assembly within five years had executed
its constitutional monarch. No provision for trying the king had
been provided by the constitution; the national assembly simply tried
him anyway.
The masses packed into the
Place de la Revolution and cheered as Louis XVI's severed head was
hoisted aloft. Of all the Marius's leading the government, not one
Valjean stepped forward to spirit the king away through the sewers
under the city. After the king and the aristocrats went to the
guillotine, next came the leaders of the revolution themselves.
Robespierre, Saint-Just, Coulton - each got the six-inch haircut.

At last came Napoleon, who Marius once exulted as a "sun rising".
After leading the French to devastate Europe,
he was finally defeated and exiled. Yet any doubt that his was
anything but a popular dictatorship was put to rest following his
escape from Elba, during the "100 Days", after he landed on the French
coast with 1200 men. Every town told to oppose him threw open
its gates; every army unit sent to reverse him cried "Vive
l'Empereur!" After being defeated in Russia, losing their entire
army, and seeing their country in ruin, thousands still turned to the
conquering general.

To this day, the masses insist on immolating themselves on the
barricades in pursuit of truth, justice, and the French legions
storming across Europe. How many millions of Germans cheered for
Hitler as he proclaimed the Anschluss? How many millions "believed" in
communism when Lenin proclaimed a worker's state in Russia? How many
millions today think that greed is the driving force behind all human
progress? How many will surrender their prized silverware to a
convict and a thief? Yes, Christianity can save democracy, but only
by dragging it unconscious through the sewers of Paris.

Democracy is a system of government where the majority of people
choose not only their own leaders, but everyone else's. Democracy has
little do to with right; nobody has the right to choose someone else's
leader. Democracy is primarily about responsibility; the majority has
the responsibility to choose everyone's leaders. If they choose
wisely, it will succeed; if they choose poorly, it will fail.